About the series

The A. J. Muste Memorial Lecture Series was founded in 1985 to celebrate the life and accomplishments of pacifist, labor leader, and Hope College alumnus Abraham Johannes Muste (1885-1967). Muste became one of the most well-known and influential peace activists in the United States, working for many years as the executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The lecture series seeks to explore issues that would have been of interest to Muste, who died in 1967, including topics related to labor, civil rights, and peace.

Series speakers have not only sought to commemorate the impact that Muste’s unwavering commitment to pacifism had on his contemporaries, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., but also to inspire current generations to strive for peaceful solutions to the world’s conflicts. Throughout the course of the lecture series, speakers have included:

• Jo Ann Robinson, 1985
• Richard Deats, 1986
• Keith Taylor, 1987
• Priscilla G. Inkpen, 1988
• Jim Forest, 1988
• Glen Pontier, 1989
• Daniel Padnos, 1991
• Noluthando Zonke Mgqamqu, 1992
• Katherine D. Raley, 1993
• Tom O’Brien, 1994
• Kay D. Perry, 1996
• Daniel Berrigan, 1997
• Norman Kansfield, 2000
• Father Roy Bourgeois, 2000
• Colman McCarthy, 2002
• Anthony Bing, 2003
• Thomas Arendshorst, 2007
• Dr. Donald Cronkite, 2008
• Glen Stassen, 2012

Lecturers are selected by the A. J. Muste Memorial Committee. The records of the A. J. Muste Lecture Series include the A. J. Muste Memorial Committee (minutes, correspondence, and speaker suggestions), correspondence with John M. Muste and various men and women interested in the lecture series, and plans for the 1988 Muste conference and the 1994 lecture. Speaker information includes correspondence, speeches, and biographical information on the majority of the lecturers, photographs, and cassette recordings of some of the speeches. There is also a litany from a speech presented in 2005.